


Edification

by DragonWhiskers



Series: The Things We Crave [20]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, Hux is having a bad day, Jealous Kylo, Lt. Mitake is having a worse one, Rey likes to do research, and Kylo's in the dog house
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-30 23:18:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8553529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonWhiskers/pseuds/DragonWhiskers
Summary: When Rey started researching his little gifts, Kylo can't seem to shake his headache or stay out of trouble.





	

Kylo wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose, rub his temples, pound the wall with his fists, anything really, to stave off the headache that had started the moment Mitake had opened his mouth.

He couldn’t bring himself to care at all about whatever it was the lieutenant was briefing him on. Kylo was becoming increasingly more and more focused on Rey’s feelings and proximity. She was bemused, but she was quickly becoming agitated and more worried the closer she was to him on the ship. Kylo stopped listening to Mitake all together, letting his probe spread out past Rey to see who was with her.

_Hux._

Kylo clenched his jaw so hard, he thought he may have broken his molars. He could see the general was walking with Rey just ahead of him, like he didn’t trust her and wished he could justifiably hold a blaster on her while they moved along the hall. Hux was scared and seething at the same time.

_What was that fool doing with his little scavenger?_

They were walking along a corridor, heading towards the conference room he was currently in, not listening to the now silent and scared lieutenant, but Kylo focused past Mitake, feeling instead on the General’s emotional mess, from nearly the other side of the _Finalizer_. It was a strange mix of irritation, hostility and the undercurrent of dread and some more baser urges of attraction, and it only made Kylo’s head throb more. This was _so_ far from normally how Hux could keep his emotions locked down, this was something Kylo knew he needed to pay attention to and it all had to do with Rey.

Her feelings, on the other hand, were passing from tolerance to annoyed. She was not happy with this distraction from what she had been working on with Drex.

_Drex?_

Did she mean Drexsol Ren?

And while Rey wasn't blocking him, she was trying to keep something closed off, something she didn't want him to know about.

Kylo barely suppressed the jealousy that started to bubble up in him at that feeling in her, she had something she didn't want him to know about and yet, one of his knights was granted this... _privilege_.

As soon as the door slide open, Hux’s overwhelming sense of relief and an unyielding sense of duty rolled off him in waves and he had that set to his jaw. The general was gearing up for a speech. Kylo glanced down, seeing the sheepish expression on Rey’s face didn’t help matter either.

_What is she hiding from me?_

Kylo had no idea, and now that Hux was practically foaming at the mouth over something, he knew he was not going to be able to ask Rey just what _it_ was.

“Ren, I ask that you keep your… _pet_ on a shorter leash. I found her elbow deep in two of our offline droids and she was building some kind of device,” the general ground his teeth as he held himself stiff. Kylo cursed inwardly as Rey rolled her eyes. He could tell she was fighting to keep a straight face while the general ratted off her offenses.

"Well, I should hope so,” Kylo cut in, the vocorder in his helm dropping his voice nearly an octave, “As she is supposed to be researching how she will be building her own lightsaber," he kept his voice bland as he addressed the redhead.

Hux blanched, which was quite a feat for the pale man and Kylo watched with amusement as the general took an involuntary half step back from Rey. She was trying to look demure now, which put Kylo on his guard. He knew she was up to something, but there was no reason to involve Hux in the matter, whatever it was.

“I…see. Very well then, but she is still to be escorted at all times. I will not have this…this…” Hux trailed off as Kylo leaned in closer, letting his height allow him to loam over the general.

“ _This what_ General?” the vocorder conveyed ever bit of malice and hate Kylo had towards the smaller man. He would not tolerate Hux insulting Rey ever again.

“ _Girl_ …run loose on my ship,” and with that parting shot, Hux turned on his heel and marched out of the room. Kylo shifted his visor toward Mitake, who had been silent and nearly shaking during the entire encounter. It didn’t take more than a flick of the Force, for Kylo to open the door again and his stare top make the lieutenant scamper off after Hux.

Kylo looked at the closed door for a long moment, thinking of all kinds of unpleasant ways Hux could disappear from and by doing so, make his life infinitely easier.

“Girl?” Rey said at last, clearly having not understood the implied insult that had not been spoken, “I am not the only woman on this ship! What is his problem anyway?” she snorted her disgust as she shook her head, walking over and wrapping her arms around his waist.

Kylo held still while she embraced him, the feel of her warm body doing more than words could to sooth his raging mind, but that nagging worry over _Drex_ flickered across his heart.

“What were you working on that had Hux so scared?” Kylo asked as he placed his hand on the back of her shoulders. He felt her tense before she started to move away from him.

“Oh – nothing,” she said, ducking her head and looking away.

“Rey.”

It was all he needed to say.

“Oh, fine! It was supposed to be a surprise,” she muttered while she pulled something out of her pocket and thrust her hand out to him. She was holding a slim black metal box, slightly concave with a little red LED panel on the front.

He took it, turned it over in his gloved palm, still unable to understand just what this little contraption was. He looked up to see Rey with her arms crossed over her chest, looking more annoyed then she’d been this entire time.

“It’s a stabilizer,” she said like that explained everything.

He just continued to stare at her, watched as she threw her hands up and turned her back on him. She turned back around with her hands on her hips, “For your lightsaber.”

Kylo looked back down at the stabilizer and then back up at Rey, “You made a stabilizer for…my lightsaber?”

“Yes! That way I know it won’t blow up in your hand one day!” Kylo watched as she became increasingly agitated, though he couldn’t fathom why. She started to pace in front of him.

“I was researching Maul and ran across a few things that didn’t make sense, so I asked Cashen, wandering if was a Sith thing or a _Dathomiri_ something, since he was around then, and he suggested I talk the schematics over with Drex. After we looked at the stabilizer needed to connect all four crystals, I started thinking about your saber and we came up with that. I was about to test in out on a faulty offline droid when General-Stick-In-The-Mud showed up demanding to know what I was doing. Drex had gone back to the hanger to see if we had a bigger power supply for the test and Hux didn’t believe me when I didn’t want to tell him what I was doing,” she was still pacing as she finished in a rush, stopping in front of him. Kylo was still unsure as to why her face was set in hard lines and her posture harsh.

“Why didn’t you just tell Hux what you were doing?” he was genuinely confused now. She seemed to be directing her anger at him.

“Because it was meant to be a surprise!” she said in an angry tone, looking at him like it explained things.

It didn’t.

“Wait – you thought Hux would tell me? That you were working on a surprise for me?” now his head really hurt, “Rey, Hux and I don’t have that kind of working relationship, hell, we only speak to each other when necessary most of the time,” Kylo looked down at her, seeing that she was still agitated, but when he let his senses brush against her anger…

“You _are_ mad at me,” He was glad he had his helmet still on, otherwise she’d have seen his shocked and confused expression, “Why?”

“Yes, I’m mad at you! You pompous ass!”

Kylo watched as she stormed up to him and reached up hitting the locks on his helmet. He reached up and stopped her from taking it off him. Kylo turned and set his helm down on the table behind him, giving himself a moment to compose his expression.

When he turned back around, he merely raised an eyebrow to his little scavenger’s temper, waiting for her to explain.  

Rey jerked her left hand up and pointed with her right to the gold ring on her finger.

Kylo swallowed, hard.

 _Shit_.

“Oh, at a loss for words now? Didn’t think I’d figure out what this meant?” Rey cocked her hip and crossed her arms in front of her, “Thought it would be funny to let me walk around oblivious to the fact you want to marry me? Let me get asked all kinds of questions, or better yet, get laughed at when I had no idea what Drex was talking about,”

Kylo didn’t know how to process her anger towards him, but then she presented a different target, Drexsol Ren, _Drex_ , as she was so fond of calling him. When had they gotten so familiar? His jealousy threatened to boiled over then and he let it.

“Drexsol laughed at you?” he asked softly.

“Well, no, not really,” Rey’s posture stiffened, but then she shifted into a more relaxed stance while still having her anger at the forefront of her emotions, “He asked if congratulations were in order, and I asked for what? He did laugh a little bit and asked where I got the ring. I told him you gave it to me, and he laughed a bit more and said maybe I should look up a bit more on standard human courtships and then muttered to himself about why he sticks with droids,” she looked down, her emotions churning. Kylo watched so many unasked questions flit across her face then.

“Do you love me?” she asked finally, not moving from her spot, “Is this what you meant? That you want to marry me?” her voice was small, uncertain.

Kylo hated seeing her like this, so vulnerable and so unsure. He understood he needed to reassure her and maybe it was finally time to try and get her to see things from his point of view.

“Yes, I…love you,” he watched her eyes light up at that and he couldn’t leave it there, “Yes, I want you to marry me, I want you with me for the rest of our lives, Rey,” he felt his heart do a strange little stutter when he said that.

“Oh, oh that’s…that’s good, because, I…um, I made you,” he watched her reach behind her and bring her fist around in front of him, “this,” she held her hand up.

He looked down to see a large black durasteel ring in the center of her palm, four bright silver bands encompassed the black metal. Kylo reached for the ring without even thinking about it, but stopped, looking up at her while his fingers hovered over it.

“When?”

“After I started reading about engagements and rings and the history of marriage. I made it out of duralsteel, since you are so rough on your hands. I worked on it the same time I was making the stabilizer. They were meant to be a surprise for later this week, after I’d had a chance to test it out,” she looked up at him then, her beautiful hazel eyes were soft, but there were still some traces of worry.

Kylo was at a loss for words. She had made him a ring. Rey understood what she was doing and she had made him an _engagement ring._ Kylo quickly ripped off his gloves and held his left hand out for her. Rey was giggling at his haste, but he didn’t care. All that mattered was feeling her slide that heavy band on his finger. He looked down, seeing she had made a good choice of the thicker band, it looked balanced on his hand.    

His little scavenger, she wanted to be his forever!

“Do you like it?” he could hear the uncertainty in her voice and he wanted to surprise it out of her. Kylo quickly wrapped her up in his arms and spun her around, “Like it? I love it!” He didn’t set her down, till she was breathless and laughing.

He looked down into her smiling face and he felt himself smile in return, “and I love you,” he said before he bent down to kiss her, keeping her breathless and tight in his arms.

He knew he’d never let her go.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone, yep, I'm not dead. Promise!  
> I've just needed a break since everything IRL was piling up to the point were I could barely sleep. So now, my wedding is done, Ren faire is done and I have till the end of the month and I'll be done with school!!!
> 
> I want to get back in the swing things and get some more writing time in. I'll pick up with my other stories soon and get started on the next Monster story as well. I've got a head start, but life has a way of keeping me from typing, but I'm determining to keep at it.


End file.
